Unity/compiz stopped working

[Tim Showalter]

Binary package hint: xorg

A few days ago, after a software upgrade, my system reported that it couldn't run Unity and fell back to GL-less Classic.

(If I killall metacity and run compiz, it runs fine, and Unity starts up with many weird problems, but the graphics performance is great.)

I don't know which package upgrade caused the problem.

One possibly related problem is that I'm not using the "current" version of the nVidia driver that the "Additional Drivers" panel recommends, I'm using "173". I have no idea what the difference is, but when I upgraded to 11.04, I had big X problems, and switching to version "173" made them go away. Basically, X was oddly unusable with the "current" driver. I can open windows, but not click on anything.

This is a regression, because things worked nicely under 10.10. Compiz ran with "Classic" quite wonderfully, Now, I can't figure out how to get compiz to run at all without killing things and starting them by hand.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.04
Package: xorg 1:7.6+4ubuntu3
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.38-8.42-generic 2.6.38.2
Uname: Linux 2.6.38-8-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
.proc.driver.nvidia.version:
 NVRM version: NVIDIA UNIX x86_64 Kernel Module 173.14.30 Sat Apr 16 21:49:29 PDT 2011
 GCC version: gcc version 4.5.2 (Ubuntu/Linaro 4.5.2-8ubuntu4)
Architecture: amd64
CompizPlugins: [core,bailer,detection,composite,opengl,decor,mousepoll,vpswitch,regex,animation,snap,expo,move,compiztoolbox,place,grid,imgpng,gnomecompat,wall,ezoom,workarounds,staticswitcher,resize,fade,unitymtgrabhandles,scale,session,unityshell]
CompositorRunning: None
Date: Mon May 30 13:53:35 2011
DistUpgraded: Log time: 2011-04-29 00:04:19.784713
DistroCodename: natty
DistroVariant: ubuntu
DkmsStatus:
 nvidia-current, 270.41.06, 2.6.38-8-generic, x86_64: installed
 nvidia-current, 270.41.06, 2.6.35-28-generic, x86_64: installed
 nvidia-173, 173.14.30, 2.6.38-8-generic, x86_64: installed
GraphicsCard:
 nVidia Corporation G72 [GeForce 7300 SE/7200 GS] [10de:01d3] (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
   Subsystem: eVga.com. Corp. Device [3842:c428]
JockeyStatus:
 xorg:nvidia_173 - NVIDIA accelerated graphics driver (Proprietary, Enabled, Not in use)
 xorg:nvidia_current - NVIDIA accelerated graphics driver (Proprietary, Disabled, Not in use)
MachineType: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. GA-MA790FXT-UD5P
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_US:en
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcKernelCmdLine: root=/dev/mapper/hostname-root ro quiet splash
Renderer: Unknown
SourcePackage: xorg
Symptom: display
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to natty on 2011-04-30 (30 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 09/16/2009
dmi.bios.vendor: Award Software International, Inc.
dmi.bios.version: F7
dmi.board.name: GA-MA790FXT-UD5P
dmi.board.vendor: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
dmi.board.version: x.x
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.chassis.vendor: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAwardSoftwareInternational,Inc.:bvrF7:bd09/16/2009:svnGigabyteTechnologyCo.,Ltd.:pnGA-MA790FXT-UD5P:pvr:rvnGigabyteTechnologyCo.,Ltd.:rnGA-MA790FXT-UD5P:rvrx.x:cvnGigabyteTechnologyCo.,Ltd.:ct3:cvr:
dmi.product.name: GA-MA790FXT-UD5P
dmi.sys.vendor: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
version.compiz: compiz 1:0.9.4+bzr20110415-0ubuntu2
version.ia32-libs: ia32-libs 20090808ubuntu13
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.23-1ubuntu6
version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 7.10.2-0ubuntu2
version.libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental: libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental N/A
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx 7.10.2-0ubuntu2
version.nvidia-graphics-drivers: nvidia-graphics-drivers N/A
version.xserver-xorg: xserver-xorg 1:7.6+4ubuntu3
version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:6.14.0-0ubuntu4
version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.14.0-4ubuntu7.1
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:0.0.16+git20110107+b795ca6e-0ubuntu7

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Hey tjs-psaux,

You filed this bug report against natty, but I see it's still open and
doesn't appear to have much activity recently. So, now that oneiric
is released and stable, this may be a good point for you to upgrade
and re-test if this issue is still present there.

If it's solved in the new release and you think it's worth backporting
the fix, please indicate that. Or if having the fix in the new release
is good enough, feel free to close out the bug (or let us know and we'll
close it.)

If it's not solved, leave the bug report open. I can't promise we'll
get to it (we get way more bugs filed than we can usually get to), but
your testing and feedback can help out if and when we do.

[bugbot (bugbot)]

We're closing this bug since it is has been some time with no response from the original reporter. However, if the issue still exists please feel free to reopen with the requested information. Also, if you could, please test against the latest development version of Ubuntu, since this confirms the bug is one we may be able to pass upstream for help.

[Tim Showalter (tjs-psaux)]

Upgrading to 11.10 fixed this.